If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

VT - Robert Schreiner, 78, beaten to death, West Townshend, 2 June 2004

This is one case in the national spotlight.

Prosecutors contend Hope Schreiner, now 73, was unhappy in a loveless marriage of more than 40 years and was tired of caring for her frail husband, a retired landscape architect. Police believe she first tried to kill him with sleeping pills, but ended up attacking him with a baseball bat or heavy stick when that did not work.

I agree and...well, it's not nice to say but her lips look like bird lips or something!! There!! I said it. It's been bugging me. THey are always pursed out. She seems very cold...although maybe it's just nerves and being on trial. I know her kids, save one, are standing by her. It seems most of her friends aren't though.

Originally Posted by luvbeaches

I've been watching a little of this trial. She sure doesn't show any emotions at all.

I am going to watch in the a.m. I have heard some interesting things about her.

Today they were discussing if she should take the stand (in her defense), and the talking heads all said that she probably shouldn't because of her demeanor during the trial. She just sits there..no facial expressions...nothing. At least that's what I've seen so far. It's like she's listening to a boring college lecture concerning the migration patterns of a grey lagged goose.

Of course she could be scared out of her mind, and this is her reaction. Who knows.

Today they were discussing if she should take the stand (in her defense), and the talking heads all said that she probably shouldn't because of her demeanor during the trial. She just sits there..no facial expressions...nothing. At least that's what I've seen so far. It's like she's listening to a boring college lecture concerning the migration patterns of a grey lagged goose.

Of course she could be scared out of her mind, and this is her reaction. Who knows.

I have an inkling about her but I will wait until tomorrow. I like facts mixed in with my fiction.

Lawyers direct their clients to show no emotion so that the facial movements are not misconstrued.

Oh well here is an unedited version of our news script;

5} SCHREINER_PKG (nats: courtroom) Week two of the murder trial began with a slew of prosecution witnesses taking the stand. One by one, they testified that Hope and Robert Scheiner's marriage was bad and getting worse. Acquaintances and friends both said that Hope was fed up with her husband's terminal illness AND that she had formed a CLOSE relationship with a male neighbor across the street. A former co-worker told the jury that Hope had joked about killing Robert months before the murder. ((Sue Palmer/Co-worker: "she said to me I want to get rid of my husband.// I thought she was kidding. Question: what id you say in response? Answer: what are you are going to do poison him? Question: how did she respond? Answer: she said yes.")) The murder trial is getting national media exposure. Court TV is broadcasting the trial LIVE from a satellite truck parked right next to the court house. The reporter covering the trial says the bazaar circumstances of the case are very compelling. ((karas: "It is usually a husband killing a wife and this is the reverse, the wife killing the husband. And, being in her 70's also makes it a little unusual. So you have a 72 year old woman, well now 73, accused of killing her elderly infirm husband and having an affair also, so it just presented a lot of interesting issues for us.")) ((Sullivan: "During the course of Monday's testimony the prosecution referenced a long sharp garden tool at the Scheiner residence. There is no word at this tim if they believe that was used int eh killing, a murder weapon has not been found. Adam Sullivan channel three news, in Brattleboro Vermont."))

6} SCHREINER_TAG An expert toxicologist also took the stand today. He testified that an autopsy showed high levels of the sleeping medicine Ambien in Robert Schreiner's bloodstream. The prosecution claims that Hope put the medicine in Robert's coffee the morning of the murder.

i have watched this trial from day one. i feel a little sorry for hope although i am certain, more than certain that she did this. i think part of her "look" is due to plastic surgery. her skin seems "stretched" across her face, giving her that haughty look. she rarely speaks to her defense attornies, who themselves leave a lot to be desired. they let the pros witnesses go on and on, and then their cross is just to re-iterate what has just been said.

although they never found the murder weapon, there is a potato hoe missing. i believe hope's confession to the neighbor who was afraid to stay alone after bob's death. hope told her not to worry b/c she (hope) had done it. i find this to be the most damning of the witnesses.

she did have a "shack-up", but i do not think he would have murdered the husband. but hope made no secret of her desire to be free. defense case, if there is one, should begin tomorrow or the next day.

the ol' bat took an ol' bat to him!

Did anyone see the trial today? They brought out graphic pictures from the autopsy, warned the jury to "take a deep breath" before viewing....and HOPE didn't even flinch. IF your husband was beat to death and they were showing the pictures, wouldn't you get just a little weepy, look away or show SOME sort of emotion?

What is going on in her head? She looks totally BORED. She just sits there, slowly blinking, as if she's in convenienced being there. You'd think SHE had jury duty.

WOW, who knew grandma had it in her? Can you picture this woman beating her husband to death? What kind of emotion did she show then, if she did it?

"Sorry, Bob, this is gonna hurt you more than it hurts me", and then, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, BAM, BAM! At least 7 times!!!!! WOW! Don't mess with the little Mrs.! How p*ssed off WAS she?

i have watched this trial from day one. i feel a little sorry for hope although i am certain, more than certain that she did this. i think part of her "look" is due to plastic surgery. her skin seems "stretched" across her face, giving her that haughty look. she rarely speaks to her defense attornies, who themselves leave a lot to be desired. they let the pros witnesses go on and on, and then their cross is just to re-iterate what has just been said.

although they never found the murder weapon, there is a potato hoe missing. i believe hope's confession to the neighbor who was afraid to stay alone after bob's death. hope told her not to worry b/c she (hope) had done it. i find this to be the most damning of the witnesses.

she did have a "shack-up", but i do not think he would have murdered the husband. but hope made no secret of her desire to be free. defense case, if there is one, should begin tomorrow or the next day.

I think she's also on HRT. Which might explain some of her odd behavior (even the murder) as described by friends and family.

Michael Evans, a doctor with the American Institute of Toxicology, told the jury in Hope Schreiner's first-degree murder trial Monday that her husband had 255 nanograms of the prescription medication per milliliter of blood in his body, the equivalent of about seven 10-milligram pills.

He estimated the pills were likely consumed at about 8 a.m. on June 2, 2004, the day of the murder. Witnesses testified last week that Hope Schreiner admitted she tried to poison her husband by putting sleeping pills in his coffee.

And Dr. Timothy Shafer, the regional medical examiner who was also the Schreiner's family physician, testified Monday afternoon that Robert Schreiner told him in April 2004 that he had stopped taking the sleeping medication. His last refill, according to pharmacy records, was in September 2003, Shafer said.

Vermont State Police Sgt. Robert McCarthy testified last week that seven Ambien pills were unaccounted for from a bottle prescribed to Hope Schreiner and filled on May 20, 2004.

story of the affair
Hope Schreiner, 73, became intimate with a man named Don in early 2004 because her husband, Robert Schreiner, was not attentive, Striet testified.

She also said she asked how her adopted father wound up beaten to death in their driveway along Robin Hill Road home in Townshend on June 2, 2004, and did not receive a definite answer from her mother.

But under heavy cross-examination, Striet also revealed that she did not comfort her mother following Robert Schreiner's death and engaged in a legal battle with her two brothers over her adopted father's estate.

Striet said she believed the estate should be handled by an outside person "because of the circumstances." She also stated she asked her brothers to reimburse her for travel costs to attend the funeral and that Windham County prosecutors paid for her to travel to Vermont to testify in the trial.

Dale Thiel then took the stand for the prosecution. Thiel, who was then the owner of the Harmonyville Store, said she got to know the Schreiners because they often stopped in. Thiel said Schreiner often expressed her concern over her husband's failing health.

During one of their conversations, Schreiner told Thiel that she and her husband were building a new house and Robert Schreiner would have the bottom floor to himself.

"Hope said 'Bob and I haven't really been together in a long time,'" said Thiel, adding Schreiner said, "I really don't like his personal hygiene." "She didn't like him," said Thiel. "She wanted him out of the house."

closing arguments are tomorrow morning and the jury should have the case by noon. they will deliberate until 9:00 PM and if necessary on Friday and Saturday, but i think, after the weak presentation of a defense case, calling only 2 witnesses, that the jury will be back either thursday night or sometime friday.

there was oen prosecution witness that was so compelling as she gave a detail of hope's confession, hope saying that she (hope) would surely go to prison, but that she had already been living in a prison, and then asking this witness to dispose of evidence (which she refused to do and instead called the police) that i do not see how the jury could come back with anything BUT a guilty verdict.

i am sorry for hope and her family, but mostly i am sorry for her victim.

Evil Stepmother

When the stepchildren said she was the "evil stepmother" for real, it made my antennaes go up. So I am not surprised by all this other stuff coming out. She must have been a pretty selfish woman. Most killers are.

"The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense." -Tom Clancy